1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to financial transactions and, in particular, to a system and method of identifying and logging suspicious behavior or suspicious activity during financial transactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical checking transactions involve depositing or cashing paper drafted checks, such as personal, business, government, and payroll checks. In some situations, customers or check presenters utilize a checking service provider, such as a check cashing service, to deposit or cash paper drafted checks, or, for example, they may utilize a check cashing service for convenience. Currently, to improve the convenience of depositing or cashing checks and to reduce the cost associated with depositing or cashing checks, checking service providers have increasingly reduced human interaction at the point of transaction with unmanned transaction terminals. Examples of unmanned transaction terminals include automatic teller machines (ATMs), advanced function kiosks, and interactive point of sale (POS) devices. The unmanned transaction terminals may be remotely located some distance from the check cashing services, and thus may not be physically monitored.
As a result, unmanned transaction terminals may be subject to suspicious behavior or suspicious activity, such as bouncing checks, cashing fraudulently acquired checks, assuming another person's identity, and falsifying documents. For example, a customer may attempt to cash a check belonging to another individual, or the customer may attempt to draw funds from an account having insufficient funds. In some circumstances, security measures are adopted to deter suspicious behavior or suspicious activity. Current security measures for many unmanned transaction terminals include video surveillance such that the video cameras are configured to record financial transactions, including depositing or cashing of paper drafted checks. Unfortunately, the video recorded financial transactions are typically viewed after suspicious behavior or suspicious activity has already occurred. Thus, a checking service provider may not know in advance whether the requested financial transaction is of suspicious intent.
In certain high risk environments, it may be necessary to issue a high number of risk based declines to protect the check cashing service from high returned check rates, delinquent checking accounts, and fraud. Unfortunately, issuing a high number of risk based declines may result in customers becoming upset in situations where legitimate check related deposits are declined or temporarily held in abeyance due to previously adverse check depositing or writing histories, which can sometimes be difficult to overcome. Also, issuing a high number of risk based declines may reduce revenue by turning away customers that may have engaged in suspicious behavior or suspicious activity in the past but, for the most part, pay returned check service fees. Moreover, due to security concerns and the associated risk of accepting paper drafted checks, issuing a high number of risk based declines may adversely impact the ability of the checking service provider to conduct business in particular neighborhoods or communities, wherein customers that are consistently declined may choose to utilize a different checking service provider. Thus, the lack of flexibility to quickly identify suspicious behavior or suspicious activity by conventional unmanned transaction terminals may require significant improvement.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that there is a need for a process by which the checking service provider can more effectively accept check deposits from documented and undocumented customers. To this end, there currently exists a need to more accurately identify suspicious behavior or suspicious activity at the point of transaction so as to better serve many customers and to substantially avoid customers with delinquent and insufficiently funded accounts, fraudulent deposits, counterfeit checks, and high returned check rates. By more accurately identifying suspicious customers, financial institutions, such as checking service providers, can improve customer relations, increase revenue, and confidently decline transactions involving suspicious behavior or suspicious activity.